The Murder of One
by MirrorShard
Summary: "They killed Kol."— The Original Family is rumored to be a great many of things. Forgiving isn't one of them. Anti!MysticFallsGang; Vengeful!Originals
1. Part I Rage

**Note:** Just a short two-shot about how the Originals should have reacted to the murder of Kol. Granted they probably should have already flipped when Finn died but I never liked the guy so. Yeah.

 **Warning:** Character Death. Probably torture. Definitely violence.

 **Pairing:** none; just family bonding.

 **English is not my native language. I apologize for any mistake in advance.**

* * *

 **The Murder of One**

* * *

 _In moments of pain we seek revenge._

—Ami Ayalon

* * *

 **Part I Rage**

* * *

 ** _Niklaus_**

* * *

Four minutes. That was the time Klaus wasted, starring at his little brother's remains, the corpse almost burnt beyond recognition, in what might have been shocked disbelief and felt a lot more like utter devastation.

His _brother_. His _little_ brother.

Dead.

His little brother had been _killed_.

The thought burnt like liquid vervain through his veins, snapping him out of his desolate state of horror as the first inkling of something much darker than sadness or pain rouse inside of him, an emotion that had first been awakened by his parents' betrayal almost a thousand years ago. During all this time it had never failed him, nor had it lost any of its strength.

Klaus was quick to angry and very hard to please, two facts that together with his callous disregard for life had earned him the fearful respect of many vampires and had been the death of even more. His temper was almost legendary and being as old as he was Klaus was well-aware of his own faults and emotions.

It was a little known—though in the company of logical people not seldom suspected—fact that Klaus didn't lack the _ability_ to control himself. He simply chose not to bother most of the time, too secure in his own invulnerability perhaps, but also unwilling to limit himself in any way he didn't find enjoyable. Additionally Klaus knew himself and his emotions very well. He had lived for hundreds of years and could safely say that he had felt almost anything his kind were capable of feeling. He knew his annoyance, his frustration, his anger. He knew his own strengths and weaknesses.

He knew very well that under normal circumstances the fact that one insignificant, little witch had bested him and managed to trap him in the Gilbert house would have made him lose it completely.

The murder of his own _brother_ was _not_ normal circumstances.

Klaus wasn't angry.

He was _enraged_.

And while the world might fear his anger _nobody_ survived his rage.

Klaus averted his eyes from his brother's remains and pulled his phone from his pocket. He had allowed them to live after they had killed Finn, well-aware of his older brother's self-disgust and willing to overlook their actions for once.

That had been a mistake he had no plans of repeating.

Klaus smiled the cold smile of a methodical killer. They had seen his anger, hot and irrational and short-lived. But never before had they earned his wrath.

* * *

 ** _Rebekah_**

* * *

When her brother called her, Rebekah was seriously tempted to ignore it. For once she was having a wonderful time with Stefan, for once she could almost forget that she had lost him to that stupid doppelganger bitch, no thanks to her _darling_ brother and his machinations. For once she felt happy and almost human—and she had no illusions that whatever it was that Nik wanted, it would completely ruin her night.

(She was right.)

But everyone knew better than to ignore Nik. He was a little _sensitive_ when it came to those things and as much as he sometimes annoyed her, Rebekah loved her brother and didn't relish in riling him up as often as possible. That was Kol's job after all.

So, with a resigned sigh and an apologetic glance towards Stefan who's eyes silently begged her not to take the call, she answered her phone.

"What do you want, Nik?" she snapped sharper than she would usually have. The constant arguments within their family were really getting to her, especially with both the cure and Kol's threats looming over them all.

"Rebekah, my sweet sister, how are you this fine evening?"

His words alone would have been enough to raise her suspicions, because god knows Niklaus never called her his sweet sister anymore, but it was the deceptively soft tone that made her entire body freeze. Nik was never _gentle_ , not even when he was trying to be sweet, and that unnatural, toneless calm made her wary in a way only her father had ever accomplished before. She could almost feel her hackles rising.

"Nik?" she asked, surprised how choked she sounded but unable to do anything about it. Was it just her imagination or was her heart really racing in her chest like that of a silly, little human? "Nik, what's wrong?"

"Call Elijah" her brother answered still in that unsettling tone that made even his command—and there was no doubt that it was in fact a command—sound like a simple suggestion. "It's time for a little _family bonding_."

The last two words were spoken in an almost feral growl and the thought of anything that could possibly upset her brother like this chilled Rebekah to the bones. "What happened?" she repeated her question and suddenly noticed the alarmed expression Stefan desperately tried to mask. She suppressed a scoff. He had never been able to lie to her. Though right now she almost wished he was.

A moment of silence passed and all she heard was her brother's breathing, calm and regular as though there was nothing wrong at all. It set her even more on edge than the friendly words had.

"The _Gilberts_ " Nik spat the name out like a curse word and for the first time in their entire conversation Rebekah recognized the man she had spent hundreds of years with "decided to kill Kol tonight. He's dead."

He's dead.

He's dead.

The phone slipped from her limp fingers but the clatter was drowned out by the suffocating silence surrounding her and the simple words repeating themselves over and over again in her head.

He's dead.

He's dead.

Kol's dead.

"Did you know?" The words tasted like ash on her tongue and her throat felt painfully raw but surprisingly there were no tears in her eyes, nor a traitorous burning sensation.

Stefan hesitated. It was all the answer she needed.

The tears came then, suddenly and unexpected, because she should be surprised but she wasn't.

Everything that happened after that was a blur. There was the sensation of warm flesh giving in under the pressure of her sharp nails, the coppery scent of fresh blood and a startled yelp of pain. There was Nik's voice, barely penetrating her mind through the daze of her fury, calling out to her and promising that he had plans for the Salvatore brother's that would be so much more painful than a single ripped out heart. There was the sharp crack of a broken neck and probably a few rips as well and then there was silence, her own broken gasps for air and the dried blood on her freshly manicured hands.

Everything was a blur but as Rebekah wiped her arms clean on Stefan's formerly white shirt she felt like she could see the world clearly for the first time in weeks.

* * *

 ** _Elijah_**

* * *

He answered his phone.

If it had been Niklaus, he probably wouldn't have bothered. If it had been Kol, he definitely would have ignored it. But it was Rebekah—his sweet, younger sister who had worn those flower crowns he had sometimes made for her for _days_ —and he answered. There was really nothing else he could have done.

The resulting conversation was short. The voice of his sister so eerily calm he almost didn't recognize her. Almost.

"They killed Kol."

Three words that shouldn't have had capability to bring him to his knees, agony twisting his handsome features into a haunting grimace few had ever seen before. But they did.

And Elijah would be lying if he denied that those words brought him back to Mystic Falls before the sun rose.

 **End of Part I**

* * *

Yep, I obviously still haven't gotten over Kol's death. So sue me.

Hope you enjoyed it, next chapter will be called Revenge. Do I need to say more? Btw any creative ideas?

Love Schlange


	2. Part II Reinforcement

**First:** Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed this story! And thanks for correcting my spelling of Rebekah's name!

 **Note:** This is how this story should have turned out: a two-shot. And then I started writing. And writing. And writing. And-you get the point. Because of the sheer length of this chapter I decided to split the revenge of each Original into a different chapter, so there will be two more chapters, first Rebekah, then Elijah and perhaps a short epilogue.

 **Note2:** I did plan for this story to focus on the Originals and it does. However because Klaus is locked into the house and the Gang has not only Bonnie but also the white oak stake I'm going to introduce an OC in this chapter. It's not a self-insert or anything and frankly, I think it's logical that they would get at least a few witches or something on their side what with such a danger as the stake in their enemies' hands. If you don't like it too bad. Though I'd like to ensure that in the revenge itself the OC only plays a minor role, the focus remains on the Originals dealing with their own emotions and relationships.

 **Canon Background:** According to the timeline in the Vampire Diaries Wiki Kol was killed on the 21st of January 2011. The next episode (with Elena and Co getting on the island and Tyler and Caroline paying Klaus a visit) happens on the 3rd of February which is a bit of a plot hole considering that the trap only works for four days. Besides I find it highly unlikely that Tyler waits with taunting Klaus for almost two weeks. I get that he might have something to do on the 21st but I'm sure he would have found the time a little sooner.

 **Where we are in the story:** After Kol's death the Mystic Falls Gang regroups in the Boarding House to research the location of the island while Caroline and Tyler are tasked with removing Kol's body. Stefan is assumed to still be with Rebekah (who broke his neck in the previous chapter instead of letting him comfort her **_because .hell._**?). Elijah's location is unknown.

 **Warning:** Character Death. Probably torture. Definitely violence.

 **Pairing:** none; just family bonding.

 **English is not my native language and any mistakes are my own. I apologize in advance.**

* * *

 **The Murder of One**

* * *

 _To take revenge half-heartedly is to court disaster, either condemn or crown your hatred._

—Pierre Corneille

* * *

 **Part II: Reinforcement**

* * *

 ** _Niklaus_**

Klaus didn't have an instinctive understanding of magic nor did he spend most of his immortal life gaining the favor of strong witches and warlocks all over the earth. _Not like Kol_. A thought that at one point had been nothing but a subconscious acknowledgment of his little brother's quirks now felt like a stake to the stomach. But Klaus forced himself to brush the wailing agony off before those weaker emotions could distract him from his goal.

He might not have been obsessed with magic, true, but as the son of the Original Witch he was far from ignorant from their possible powers. And like all of his siblings Klaus had always made it a point to covet such power.

For a moment his fingers hovered over the display of his phone, hesitating as he tried to decide on whom to call. There were enough witches and warlocks in his depth for one reason or another but few of them had the required power and deviousness, never mind that they would directly act against the Bennet line which was widely renown for its strength and highly regarded members.

In other words the person in question would have to be loyal to him, at least to a certain degree. More importantly nobody he had recently displeased or who's friend or relative he had killed. Which narrowed the list of possible assistants down quite a bit. In fact after Greta's untimely demise during the ritual last summer and after the witch massacre a decent witch was hard to come by—close to Mystic Falls that is.

On the other hand Klaus had heard rumors of one of his contacts possessing an ability rather similar to teleportation which would solve the distance problem. It didn't hurt that it was one of the few magic users who didn't hate vampires in general. Klaus would have invested a lot more time securing her alliance if it wasn't for some of her other _eccentrics_ but even so he had been unwilling to discount her completely.

Within seconds of his internal debate Klaus reached the conclusion that said contact was the best he was going to get due to the current circumstances and dialed the number he had never even bothered to save in his contacts.

The phone rang. And rang. He tapped his feet against the ground impatiently. And rang.

"Get es Krista gut?"* a sleepy voice answered the phone about two seconds after Klaus obliterated the table closest to him.

"Rider!" he snapped immediately. "Why did it take you so long to answer the god damn phone?"

There was a moment of silence, cut off by a loud yawn before—" _Klaus_? Is that _you_?" and then because Rider had never been one to keep her mouth shut (and was clever enough to know that even he wasn't able to kill her through a mobile phone, no matter how much he may want to) "You _do_ know it's in the middle of the fucking night, don't you?"

"I don't care" he hissed, interrupting the girl before she had a chance to talk herself into one of her inconsequential but quite bothersome hissy-fits. Had the circumstances been different he might have humored her, but. Kol's _body_ made it hard to forget why he was having this conversation in the first place. "I want you here as soon as possible and ready for a battle!"

His supernatural hearing picked up on the rustling as gathered her things but even so her breathing remained calm. It was more than he could say for himself. "Who died?" Rider asked, her voice even but serious.

Balling his free hand into a tight fist until his finger nails drew blood Klaus averted his eyes once again from the scene of the crime. "I want you in Mystic Falls, Virgina" he commanded, his tone growing colder by the second as his body started to tremble. "You have three minutes!"

They were the only words he managed to force out before the remains of his phone crumbled to the ground.

* * *

In retrospect destroying his only means of communication with the outside world while being trapped inside the Gilbert home for four days might not have been his smartest decision to date. On the plus side it gave Klaus a lot of time to glare at the clock as though he could move time forward through sheer will power alone or alternatively pace from one end of his prison to the other one.

Suffice to say it was a long two minutes and thirty-five seconds before the sound of a beating heart suddenly filled the silence. Klaus head snapped up just in time to see Rider cock her head in a way that reminded him a little too much of Kol as she stared owlishly at something straight over his head.

"That explains it, then" Rider nodded in satisfaction.

"What are you talking about?" Klaus asked—demanded—still struggling to reign his temper in. Those unfocused eyes turned to survey him, as if only acknowledging his presence now and being surprised to come across him, and as a serene smile spread over Rider's lips he almost regretted questioning her. He had forgotten how irritating the girl could be and, what was worse, how confusing.

"The strong seal surrounding you is messing with my ability to pick up your aura and reach your side directly." Rider stated in a calm matter of fact tone. Her eyes did not refocus for even a moment. "Turns out this is actually almost as effective as a cloaking spell in regards to my traveling if it wasn't for the fact that the perimeter dampening your magical presence is rather small. A couple of meter—or is it feet here? I never did get the hang of other measures of length besides the ones of my own country, you would have to speak with Krista for that—is hardly a large enough block to keep me from reaching you. It's an unconventional way to hide you, a bit of a crude job of course, but fascinating all the same."

Furiously suppressing the urge to strangle the irritating woman—not that he could, Rider did keep a safe distance towards the trap of that godforsaken Bennett witch—Klaus couldn't quite stop his rising amusement from trickling through the fog of _anger_ and _hate_ and _kill_ his mind had turned into. The girl had always been a bit too likable for her own good.

In the end he decided to ignore her speech completely—as fascinating as her teleporting ability was if he let her distract him they wouldn't get to the matter at hand before Elijah arrived in town and _no way in hell_ would he allow his brother all the fun. He was still a little sore about Elijah's killing spree in Prague a couple of centuries ago. Gentleman or not his brother certainly never did have the manners to leave some of his victims alive for his other siblings to play with.

"Can you break the seal?" he cut straight to the chase even as he watched the Rider's gaze flickering across the room, occasionally halting on one spot of thin air or another until she suddenly twisted her body around and took a few steps towards the kitchen. Knowing she had just discovered—Kol.

"Whoever did this might lack in finesse but definitely not in power" Rider muttered distractedly. "It might not hide you sufficiently but getting you out is another matter altogether."

Pinching the bridge of his nose Klaus mentally debated whether it would be worth the effort to try and explain that the seal wasn't supposed to hide him at all and did in fact exactly what it had been created for. In the end he decided not to bother because if there was one thing witches always were it was opinionated.

"The seal's strength is bound to the moon" Rider continued, not even bothering to turn around. Instead she took a few steps into the kitchen and kneeled down next to his brother's unmoving form. "It's going to collapse on its own in three to five days, depending on several factors I have no control over."

She stood equally as sudden, her movements jerky as she turned her back on the macabre scene, her expression shifting from absent-minded to dead serious. Noticing her left hand disappearing into the pocket of her much too large coat Klaus opened his mouth to call her out on it but she interrupted before he had the chance. "I can try to undo the seal but it would take all my strength and I only have a sixty per cent chance of success. This" she reached out reverently and seemed to trace something with her index finger even his sharp eyesight could not detect "is wild magic in all its terrible beauty. Nothing but brute force is going to bring it down. Which basically means a lot of needlessly wasted resources."

As usual the girl was practical to the point of moral…ambiguity at best. She had a way of judging a situation purely by economic standards instead of moral or legal ones and Klaus could already see new plans and ideas swirling in her eyes. It were moments like these that he was proven right in his decision to keep Rider around in case of emergencies.

"So, K-Man" Rider sat down on the floor across him with a light smile, like they had met up for tea and a bit of pointless gossip. "Tell-"

"Did you just call me K-Man?"

Rider raised an eyebrow. "Why, yes. I did. It's good to see that your old age isn't catching up with you."

"Don't get cocky, witch" he growled. Never had a invisible barrier been so irritating. Well, perhaps a few minutes ago, when it had stopped him from killing the damn Gilberts.

"Wouldn't dream of it" Rider smirked which really wasn't helping his temper. He half suspected—half knew for certain—that was exactly why she did it.

"Why K-Man?" Klaus knew he was going to regret asking but his cursed curiosity wouldn't allow to let the matter drop.

"Well…" Rider regarded him with a sad sigh, a grave expression on her face like she was mentally preparing herself to be the bearer of terrible news. "You're name is _Klaus_. And I'm sorry to tell you this but-" coughing awkwardly the girl hastily continued, rushing the words out as fast as possible. "In Germany _Klaus_ isn't exactly a fear-inspiring name, you know? It's a exemplarily case for the Most Unepic Villain Name Phenomena my sister is currently investigating in her free time. So we decided to give you another name except Krista insisted we couldn't call you Nikolaus or maybe Father Christmas—it would have been the perfect code name of course, very inconspicuous but she felt it wasn't exactly dignified and after the incident with my second cousin writing you a unexpectedly suggestive standing novation mother banned those names from the house—so she suggested X-Man—you know, a short version for Christmas Man, because nobody would have suspected that one either—but I studied the copy right laws extensively and it just wasn't worth the fine, not to mention that it's an insult to our own creativity, so we finally agreed on K-Man."

Klaus blinked. He could feel the headache building behind his temples. It were moments like that proved him right in his decision to avoid Germany for the rest of his eternal life span.

"But anyway" Rider changed the topic with a sheepish grin and the subtlety of a pissed off Rebekah. "Tell me what you want and I think of a way to make it happen."

He regarded the girl with a cool look. Rider was almost always serious, even when she was babbling complete nonsense which was the main reason few people ought to give her a second glance. But she was also brilliant in that she relied on loopholes more than strength and took the phrase 'thinking outside the box' to a whole new, dizzying level of absurd genius.

It helped that even centuries old vampires who really should know better tended to underestimate a kid who thought of a raggy coat, a pink Hello Kitty pajama and polka-dotted, mismatching socks as a suitable battle attire.

* * *

"To sum up a group of whiny, tragic hero teenies killed your brother with a stroke of luck and a special stake and now you want revenge" Rider nodded, projecting the calm, experienced aura of someone who had expected nothing less. "The aforementioned teenies consist of one off-the-rails witch-bitch, an even more insane and possibly pedophile professor, the real vampire version of Edward and Jacob posing as brothers, a male Buffy impostor, a little lap dog you involuntary let off the leash, a bloodsucking cheerleader and the third update of a two-timing sacrifice lamb."

Klaus' lips twitched at some of the descriptions Rider gave and he got the sudden thought that maybe he had been lucky to get a nick name like K-Man after all.

"Hm" the girl murmured, placing her chin on top of her folded hands. "If nothing else this certainly promises to be more interesting than losing another round of three dimensional chess against Krista. That girl takes the phrase _It's only cheating if the other one's doing it_ to a whole new level."

Straightening her back a bit she eagerly clapped her hands. "What kind of revenge do you want exactly? Just killing them all off or do you want to make them suffer? Do you or any of your siblings have dibs on any of them? Someone you plan to leave alive? And no offense intended but can we cut this short? The death of an Original releases strong amounts of magical residues and this house _reeks_ of death." She wriggled her nose in distaste.

Furrowing his eyebrows Klaus for the first time turned his mind towards the actual act of revenge, or more precisely how he could reach a maximum effect on them all. "Neither me nor my siblings should kill the baby hunter if it's in any way avoidable. I'd rather not deal with another hundred years of mental torment and as long as we get the stake he won't be a danger to us any more. Everyone else needs to die although we can take our time with some of them."

Rider nodded encouragingly, causing Klaus to blink in surprise when he realized she had pulled out a note pad from somewhere and was penning everything he said down. Or maybe she was playing Tic Tac Toe, from his position it was hard to tell. He decided not to think too much about it, the girl was bound to give him a massive headache either way.

"I also suspect that my sister will want to deal with her boy toy herself" he added after a moment of careful thinking. Yes, Rebekah would never forgive him if he took the younger Salvatore from her before she had finished _playing_ with him and somehow he doubted that Stefan would survive the fun. As for Elijah, it was much harder to tell which one of the Scooby Gang he would regard as the prime offenders but then, Elijah had always been a difficult one to predict. There was a reason why his oldest brother had avoided his dagger for so many centuries after all.

"That would be the Edward or Jacob rerun, I assume." Rider smiled grimly in a way that Klaus would have considered disturbing if he wasn't, well, the infamous hybrid. "Good, good. The world could have done without the first pair, there's no reason their doubles should be allowed to exist any longer than strictly necessary."

A few moments—in which he resumed his impatient pacing—passed in silence, Rider occasionally tapping thoughtfully against her chin and writing something down only to cross another word out again. Klaus shot a gaze at the clock on the wall. It had been almost two hours since he had called Rebekah, plenty of time for Elijah to reach Mystic Falls—or at least the near vicinity. But also two hours his enemies would have to regroup, a thought that darkened his mood rapidly.

"Alright, I've got it" Rider finally announced. "It's quite simple, really. In fact, I'm a little worried it's too obvious but in the unlikely event that they realize it before it's too late we'll just have to improvise."

"Go ahead" Klaus cut her off before she could go off on another irrelevant ramble.

"Sir, yes, sir!" —saluting included— "Basically your two currently unsupervised siblings and little old me go on a hunt while you sit down on that couch over there and make yourself comfortable. Anyone you like to kill or torture personally we toss into the seal and then you have a few days of fun with them and they have no means of escaping."

Klaus rose an eyebrow. "That does seem rather-"

"-brilliant in its simplicity, yes, I know. I also figured you would appreciate the irony of them being trapped in their own trap." Rider blinked at him innocently. "By the way, you didn't happen to kill any of their friends or relatives lately, did you?"

"Well, I can't say I keep track on all the people I kill but I'm fairly sure the whelp hasn't gotten over the unfortunate death of his mother yet." He didn't bother concealing his satisfied smirk which only widened at Rider's snort. It was truly rare to find a witch who didn't immediately preach about the value of life and whatnot. How refreshing. Kol would have certainly appreciate her, especially with the nick names she liked to give. To be honest it was one of the main reasons why he had ensured the two of them would never cross path. One lose cannon was difficult enough, there was no need for a little witch who might still live for several decades to fill his wild brother's head with even more questionable ideas. Klaus honestly wasn't sure if the world would have survived them.

"In that case maybe you can do some of the work after all" Rider said, the deadly smile looking strangely out of place on her young face. "As you're trapped in her a few of them might come around to gloat. I'm sure you'll find an opportunity to trick them into crossing the barrier somehow. And it never hurts to thin the enemy's lines before the final confrontation." She winked at him and slowly got on her feet again, stretching her tense muscles and shaking her arms wildly.

Klaus found himself staring at the tiny girl, unable to decide whether she should be allowed to live after this ordeal. For all he appreciated her carelessness in the face of death and murder, it also made her much less predictable and far more dangerous than many other witches he had crossed paths with before. Even the Bennett witch had only become a true threat after she had abandoned her skewed morals and lost herself in whatever dark magic she was currently drinking in.

"Anyway, the stench here is making me sick so I'll best be on my way before one of your siblings gets themselves killed because they don't understand the principle of guerrilla wars" Rider said brightly and pulled a small, rectangular shape from her right pocket.

"Here" Klaus caught it reflexively and stared at the mobile phone in his hands with a surprised look. "I suspected you might need a new one." Rider sent him a knowing look before her eyes glazed over and lost the focused gleam they had held during their entire conversation.

"I best get going then. Have fun with your guests, K-Man." And with those words Rider skipped towards the door of the Gilbert house, only to suddenly disappear without a sound in mid-skip.

Staring after the strange girl Klaus couldn't help but imagine how a meeting between Elijah and Rider might turn out. It was a shame he was going to miss it, he concluded as he dialed Rebekah's number on the foreign phone to warn her of the pink-clothed nightmare he had just released upon the unsuspecting populace of Mystic Falls. It was sure to be memorable.

* * *

"I don't care how many people it takes, I want that blockade! You've got sixteen hours!" Klaus hissed into the phone and promptly hung up. He had seen some of Rider's work first hand but when dealing with the doppelganger and her friends it was always better to have a back-up plan, just to be sure. After all it wouldn't do for those _children_ to run off and get their hands on the cure while he was incapacitated. He would never hear the end of it if that happened, Rebekah would make sure of it.

Having just finished his second call to one of his closest connections—geographically speaking— an old warlock that owed him a favor or ten, he turned towards the still open door when his senses picked up the sound of two approaching people.

He frowned.

Rebekah should still be busy—he had been very explicit in his instructions once she had calmed down from her little tantrum and he had promised her Stefan's life—and he doubted that Elijah would bring any company. His sister had a way of making their oldest brother drop everything and race to her rescue, a habit which he never failed to make fun of, naturally.

His thoughts were interrupted when only a few seconds later his enhanced hearing picked up on a softly murmured conversation. Klaus immediately rose from his seat on the surprisingly comfortable couch when he recognized the voices and an expression of pure anticipation slid over his features before he schooled his face into a blank mask. It was bad enough that his siblings and a little witch were got to do the good part, he was going to have fun with this.

* * *

By the time his guests— _future victims_ has such a negative connotation—stepped through the front door Klaus had already returned to his seat, propping his feet on the other end of the couch and looking for all the world like he was simply enjoying another episode of The Big Bang Theory instead of the disheveled, grieving lunatic they had no doubt expected.

 _Always keep them off-balance_ , Rider had told him the first time they had met almost three years ago. _It might raise your chance of survival and if nothing else it will keep things entertaining_. She had amused him back then, this little twig of a girl sharing advice on the fine art of misdirection with a thousand year old hybrid, and for the first time he wondered if that hadn't been her objective all along. _Clever little witch_.

Carefully keeping a satisfied smirk off his face Klaus took the time to observe his visitors. Tyler, his first hybrid creation—and perhaps his greatest disappointment— strolled into the house with the smug air of someone who had defeated his enemy and was now going to rub everyone's nose in his apparent victory. His death wouldn't be a loss, Klaus thought with a surprisingly small amount of bitterness. Nor had he deserved the honor of being turned. His only show of strength had been his ability to break the sire bond but the triumph had turned the boy arrogant and over-confident in his own abilities when in truth the usual hybrid did have an even lower life expectancy than the average human living in Mystic Falls.

Following in the wake of the foolish pup he had allowed to run wild Caroline entered the room. Her posture was straight and proud as always—it was that inner strength he saw on display now that had initially drawn him to her and it was the same strength that had made him wonder what she ever saw in the little lap dog as Rider had so aptly described him—but much less confident than her companion. She looked uncomfortable at best and Klaus could read the conflict in her eyes as effortlessly as an illuminated exit sign.

Klaus stared at her intently, his face revealing none of his emotions even as his thoughts raced. He was a killer, always had been, and he never pretended to be otherwise. With her he though. With her he hadn't pretended, exactly, but he had tried to prove himself. To prove that there was more to him. It had started as an attraction—and she had hardly been the first—but when she continued to refuse him it had turned into a challenge. A game. Klaus always did have trouble abandoning a game. Unfinished business did have a habit of coming back to bite you. And yet by continuing to play he had allowed this _insignificant child_ to turn into a deathly threat for his family. It was a mistake and Klaus did not make mistakes.

Analyzing the way she avoided direct eye contact and the smile on her lips tightened into something like a frown he for the first time actively acknowledged the part of his mind that catalogued her weaknesses to use them against her. She had turned from a passing interest into a lose end and a Mikealson did never leave any lose ends behind. Stefan had been another one and look how that turned out.

Watching her with the eyes of a man who had spent hundreds of years observing and studying humanity it was hardly a challenge to pick out her most obvious weakness. She pitied him. But her pity would not bring back Kol. Her pity would not change anything except making her vulnerable. In the end her pity would bring her death.

* * *

Both, his amusing conversation with Rider and the fact, that a few hours had already passed since Kol's demise, had succeeded in calming Klaus' rage from the white, hot anger to something dark and cold, simmering just beneath the surface of his fragile self-control, eagerly waiting to be unleashed.

It was most likely the only thing that kept him from rushing against the erected barrier in blind fury when the little whelp started mocking him. Instead he managed to keep his face free off any expression, his entire body frozen in the previously relaxed position in the considerably straining effort to keep himself from following his instincts to _attack_ , _tear_ , _destroy_.

"Damn it, he looks even uglier in death than he did in life!" The whelp laughed—he was the only one—as he hived his Kol's body from the ground.

The silence thickened.

"I mean, seriously, had I known it was that easy to get rid of the git I would have done this ages-"

Klaus could almost feel what little was left of his patience leaving him at an alarming pace, almost as easily as the soft material of the armrest gave way under his clenched fingers. It was the only outward sign that he had even registered the baiting words—so far—and literally the only thing keeping him seated was the strong sense of disappointment he could almost smell from the whelp. It was a close thing though. Thankfully the blond wench—the dead had no need for names after all—choose this moment to intervene, allowing him some time to gather his emotions back under control.

"Ty" the wench interrupted, wide eyes pleading. " _Please_."

Surprisingly—or not so much—that was all it took to make the whelp snap.

"Really?" Whirling around the whelp snarled at her, all traces of amusement gone. "You're going to defend him? _Him_?"

It was quite obvious he was still a sore spot, Klaus noticed with no small amount of vindication. It was good to know he had managed to drive such a wedge between them—not that it had taken all that much effort. Honestly, if the boy thought all it would take for his little girlfriend to leave him were a couple of presents then he had probably been doing the two of them a favor. Not that it mattered anymore of course, but still. Had things gone differently he might have sent that irritating doppelganger a few trinkets, expensive and tasteful of course. It wasn't like he lacked the money to do it and the reaction of the Salvatores would have certainly been amusing. Too bad he had passed that chance up some time ago, it would have been quite a treat.

Cocking his head to the side Klaus watched the High School drama (technically it was College drama now but he inwardly assured himself that all participants lacked the necessary maturity for that) unfold before him.

The wench stumbled a step back, obviously unprepared for the sudden aggression directed straight at her. "That wasn't what I meant…" Her voice trailed off. It was a weak countenance and she knew it too.

"Oh yes?" The whelp growled, his eyes taking on an unholy, yellow shine.

Sometimes, Klaus mentally noted, the divide and conquer principle was far to easy to evoke. No wonder he usually didn't bother with delicacies like that one, it was far too simple to keep him entertained, much less challenged.

"Than what exactly did you mean, Caroline? Care to explain that?"

"I'm not defending him! All I'm trying to say is that his brother just died and-"

"Yes, his unpredictable, murderous serial killer brother got himself killed. Just like my _innocent_ _mother_ a few weeks ago. Just like my father almost two years ago. Just like the other hybrids. But of course, let's pay our respect to the Original who made all our lives miserable and forget about all the people this fucking family gets killed on a daily basis! Forgive me for enjoying this moment after all the lives they destroyed!"

"I-"

Klaus watched the arguing pair carefully, keeping track of their every movement. If one of them were to accidentally cross the barrier, well. The would live to regret their mistake but not for long. And he refused to let a possible opportunity go to waste, especially with their attention focused elsewhere at the moment. What had it been that Rider had told him about the motto of her _Klan_?

" _Distract, deflect and deceive_."

Back then he had laughed into her face. How could a coven as old as she claimed to belong to with powers that had never been confirmed—yet, on a completely unrelated note, also never been disputed—possess such a simple motto? It was unthinkable.

Now though he knew Rider a lot better than he had before and he was fairly sure the girl had never outright lied to him, considering lies a waste of time and energy when there was so much potential in twisting the truth to comply with her needs. Or so she said.

Ironically he had in a way allowed the wench to do exactly that. The distraction part at least. But no more. His family's blood had been spilled and the Mikaelsons were an old family. Murder was punished with death, nothing more and nothing less. An eye for an eye was a fairly simple principle, he was sure even the dimwitted inhabitants of Mystic Falls understood that. Or at least had understood it at one point in time. Maybe he would have to teach them.

"Enough, Tyler!" the wench finally snapped. "I'm not going to have this conversation right here, right now!"

"Oh, please do not stop on my accord." Klaus sent the pair his best, benevolent smile which quickly morphed into a mocking smirk as he met the whelp's gaze. "I'm just starting to enjoy the show."

The whelp opened his mouth, probably to stain his brother's memory with another ill thought out insult, but the wench stepped in once again

"Just get the body out, Tyler" she commanded. "We'll talk later."

She gave him a particularly hard shove, causing the whelp to stumble towards the door and—to the surprise of everyone—bounce off the door again with a groan of pain. The wench gasped. Klaus blinked.

Well. This was unexpected.

"What?!" The whelp dropped Kol's body—the blatant display of carelessness yet another mark against him—to turn back towards the door and tried once again to cross the threshold. But instead of passing through like he should have been able to an invisible barrier kept him inside, refusing to cave under his pounding fists. After overcoming the first moment of shock the wench reached out only for her hands to meet an unmoving resistance even though her eyes told her that nothing should be there.

"But-But Bonnie said she locked him into the living room!" the wench finally stated, disbelief dripping from her every word as confusion slowly turned into dawning horror. "This shouldn't be possible!"

But even as she spoke Klaus could see the growing doubt in her eyes, darkening them in worry and the beginnings of fear. He supposed it wasn't much of a surprise. All the members of his family had at one point or another commented on the growing issues regarding the Bennett witch and he seriously doubted that her friends had missed her descend into madness and her slipping control on her dangerous power.

It was fortunate, of course, to know how much confidence they truly had in their most powerful asset. As it was Klaus was very much aware of the truth. The Bennett witch had in fact locked him into this room, he had after all spent several minutes testing the exact boundaries, and it was highly unlikely that she had put up a second block after the first. Especially considering that Rider would have sensed it.

Rider on the other hand…

Klaus kept his face impassive as he considered it. The girl had spent an awfully long time sitting cross-legged on the floor only to come up with the simplest, most obvious solution available. Setting up another blockade would have taken some time but she would have been able to do it very covert—as she preferred her magic to act in general—and it would be exactly the kind of thing Rider would think up. Set up a second barrier to trap any potential visitor in the house and have them blame each other as well. Not to forget that such barriers were rather simple to raise and did not require much power, especially as they didn't need to hold the Original Hybrid, only some fairly young and (in comparison) rather weak vampires.

"Not so secure of yourself now, are you mate?" he finally decided to remind them of his presence. Keep them off-balance. Don't let them think things through. Don't allow emotions to succumb to logic. "What, no comment? No reminder of my _ravenous beast of a brother that should have been put down a long time ago_? Please, continue to entertain me." He bit the words out like poison, eyes as black as the night, save for their unsettling, golden gleam.

"Not so loud-mouthed now that your only means of escape are blocked, are you?" he laughed cruelly as their eyes widened in horror at his implication. "But don't worry, you still have some time left." It was a lie. Klaus would have thought that obvious at least but his reputation in this town must have suffered more than he thought because the wench relaxed a bit, if only minutely.

"After all" he continued, crossing his ankles for show and sending them a chilling smirk. "All good things come to those who wait."

* * *

Twelve minutes. That was the time the whelp and the wench wasted, arguing in hushed voice—which was a completely useless endeavor, _honestly_ —as they tried to decide what to do and more importantly what he could possibly be planning.

It was three minutes more than Klaus had estimated. He really was more out of practice than he had thought. Still, the end result was the same.

As the argument between the pair of children turned once again explosive—he was unsure what exactly had caused the downward spiral, it wasn't like he could be expected to constantly monitor their relationship—the wench turned her back on the boy with a frustrated huff and dropped down on the seat farthest away from him. Farthest away perhaps but still within the second barrier she had no idea existed.

Klaus suppressed a smile but forced himself to wait for the whelp to follow his little girlfriend. _Patience_. The boy was a little more distrustful, though that might have less to do with common sense and more with his jealousy issues, but he stayed in the entrance hall and settled for glaring darkly at him. It wasn't a very effective glare, all things considered. The whelp's resistance was a bit of an annoyance but Klaus had a few days to get him to cross the second barrier, it wasn't like he was going to run out of time. Besides, he had leverage now. If it came down to it, he could force the boy's compliance one way or another.

The wench-turned-leverage had crossed her arms in front of her and glared at the floor, looking for all purposes like a sulking child. And yet every time their eyes met the frustration left her and was once again replaced by _pity_. It was more irritating than the whelp's laughable attempts at intimidation and Klaus briefly contemplated ripping her heart straight out of her chest, just to get the whole matter over and done with. But no. He couldn't allow his only chance of entertainment to die so quickly. Besides as far as he was concerned a clean, quick death was a mercy neither of his fellow prisoners deserved.

"Klaus" the wench suddenly said, interrupting his contemplations before he could delve too deep into the blood-thirsting mind state he was currently trying to avoid. "I'm sorry about Kol."

He didn't bother replying, didn't even acknowledge that she had spoken at all. Her blue eyes were open and sincere but that didn't changed anything. Her apology, no matter the spirit in which it was offered—meant nothing to him.

Although her words weren't completely worthless, if only because the riled the whelp up yet again—honestly Klaus wasn't sure if the boy had ever calmed down in between his outbursts—and he stalked angrily towards her.

"First you defend him and now-" he never managed to finish his sentence. The second he crossed the line of the second barrier Klaus held his upper body in an uncomfortably tight grasp and with one well-practiced kick he shattered the whelp's left knee cap, an injury he knew from experience to be quiet painful, not to mention that it took a relatively long time to properly heal.

Dark satisfaction swelled inside his chest as the bone cracked under the sudden pressure and muscles were brutally pulled apart and _twisted_. The pained cry his victim uttered was a thing of beauty, perhaps only outshone by the wench's fearful scream.

Handling the whelp's body like a limb puppet he twisted one arm behind the boy's back and forced him into an upright position, keeping his hostage between himself and the shocked wench before she had the chance to recover and attack him while he had his back turned towards her. He tightened the grip a little more, basking in the helpless whimpers the pathetic waste of space made as his shoulders were bent too far.

"Stop!" The wench yelled, tears glittering in her eyes. They looked prettier that way, the blue color highlighted in a way her make-up failed to achieve. It was beautiful. Devastation always was.

His only response towards her foolish command—and how _dare_ she command him in any way—was a sickening crack resounding in the otherwise silent house, almost like the setting of a horror movie. For the first time since his guests had first arrived, Klaus didn't bother to suppress his smile. It was a genuine one, tainted with blood and hunger and _more_ , but still genuine.

"No, I don't think so" he answered the girl's ridiculous demand after a moment of thoughtful silence. "I am only just starting to enjoy this little get-together after all, it would be shame to put an end to it so quickly." He gave the stiff form in his arms a calculating look. „I wonder how loud I can get you to scream… Well, no time like the present" and with those words he pulled the whelp's shoulder out of his socket with a simple tug.

Sadly the raging wench was on him before he could properly savor the boy's scream and he dropped the whelp and buried his teeth viciously in her throat, probably slashing a few venes as well, before his mind could catch up with his actions. With a disgusted frown Klaus pushed her away, venom still dripping from his lips, and unsympathetically watched her crumbling to the ground.

He had injected far too much poison for her to last the rest of his four days inside this prison, in fact he doubted she would make it past a couple of hours. How annoying. The whelp would have to keep him entertained for longer than Klaus had initially planned. Still, he had lived long enough to pick up a torture technique or five thousand. He would make due. Actually, he planned to make it _memorable_.

His brother deserved nothing less.

* * *

Klaus took a small step back to admire his newest masterpiece. His still living—if only barely—masterpiece at that. And wasn't that unexpected? Who would have thought his self-control would be strong enough to withstand the steadily growing desire to cut the boy's head off? (As slowly as possible, naturally.)

Taking in the hunched, bloody form of one of the more recent pains in his ass Klaus allowed himself a moment of pure appreciation for his own artistic talent. After he had gotten tired of breaking bones and tearing flesh—the screams never failed to cheer him up but there were only so many times you could pulverize the bones in someone's extremities without becoming repetitive—he had broken one of the large windows of his little prison.

The shards had been used to adore his victim's skin with the most creative patterns. It had taken Klaus a while to get the hang of it, human skin was a bit more resistant than a canvas, but luckily the boy healed fast, allowing him to start anew every fest minutes. It had the added effect of bleeding the whelp dry very, _very_ slowly, further weakening him.

Predictably the wench had tried to protect her boy toy. Her pathetic attempts at resistance had led Klaus to break her spine every couple of minutes, sometimes crushing her sternum or another bone just because he could. But about two hours ago his venom had overwhelmed the girl and though she wasn't dead she was far too weak to do anything but lie on the ground and occasionally moan in pain. If he didn't have the foresight to keep the whelp in too much pain to be coherent he would have almost certainly had to put up with some dramatic Romeo and Juliet talk. And lots of pointless accusations he didn't have the patience for.

As it was the room had fallen into blessed silence as he tried to decide what his next surprise for his little entertainment was going to be. In the last years he had become so used to simply getting rid of any annoyance he had completely forgotten how satisfying the hard, long way towards death could be if you were the one paving the way. It was an oversight he planned to never make again.

"Why do you even bother?" The wench spoke suddenly—Klaus hadn't even realized she was still conscious—her words so faint he would not have picked them up if not for his sharp senses.

He turned to look at the girl dying at his feet—who was remarkable at ease with her fate it seemed. Too at ease perhaps. It was high time to change that.

"Torture is hardly a bother, love" he replied with his most condescending smirk. Maybe he should cut the boys toes off. Their bodies healed fast but even a hybrid couldn't regrow a lost limb. Of course it took usually just a very basic spell from a witch to change that but it wasn't like the whelp would live long enough for that to happen. Or should he start with the fingers?

"It's just pain though" the wench coughed, shudders racking her overheated body. "Horrible in the moment it may be but it won't _last_." There was still fire in her eyes, an intelligence and understanding that had at one point piked his interest.

"True" Klaus admitted, picking one of the larger glass shards that wasn't quite as sharp as its smaller counterparts. "But contrary to popular belief you can't actually get used to pain. Certain measures can help building your tolerance but only to a point." He would know, he had spent centuries trying after all. "You would be surprised how long pain can _really_ last."

But the wench shook her head, or tried to, another whimper escaping her raw lips. "It's still just pain. Pain we'll _survive_."

Klaus rose an eyebrow in silent question, causing the wench to smile weakly at him.

"You're not going to kill us." There was no arrogance or misplaced sense of superiority in that statement but her quiet certainty fueled the flames of his hatred more than the stupid child could possibly realize. She—they all—were so convinced of their eventual victory, of their survival and it sickened him that he had involuntary strengthened those illusions. But no more! The wench would never know it of course but it was in that instance that her fate had been decided.

"And what exactly is going to stop me?" he mocked, staring her straight in the eyes as he raised his arm and impaled the glass on the whelp's hand, cutting of his ring finger in the process. The whelp screamed yet again, _raw_ , _desperate_ , _beautiful_.

Klaus observed the way the wench's face darkened, the way she flinched as the boy she _loved_ was tortured in front of her but she held her head high—or as high as possible considering she was lying on the floor—defiance in her every expression.

"Because this isn't you! You are not a monster!" she declared heatedly. "You love me and you are so much better than this! You won't spare us for me or for Tyler's sake, you're going to do it for _yourself_!"

For a moment Klaus simply stared at the wench, conviction burning like fire in her eyes, and then he did the only thing he could: he threw his head back and _laughed_.

* * *

It took another seven fingers being creatively removed from the attached body before he could see the wench's faith wavering. The whelp sadly was in no condition to share his own beliefs. In fact if his body wasn't as regenerative as it was he would have been unconscious for most of the procedure which would have been a pity.

By this point the girl's hallucinations came more and more frequently though her sobs and anguished calls didn't tell Klaus a lot about what exactly she was suffering. The fact that she suffered would have to be enough. Hopefully Kol would understand.

" _Please_ " the wench whimpered, pathetically and weak even as her eyes were focused once more.

This one word snapped Klaus' carefully maintained mind set of clinical precision and hollow calm because. He could _see_ the scene flash before his eyes. Felt the blazing flames burning in his skin. Heard Kol's screams of anguish echoing in every step he took, every whisper in the chilling air.

 _Kol_.

"You cost me my brother."

The words lingered between them, neither an apology nor an accusation. It was a fact that could not be changed, nor could it be forgiven. More than anything else it was a death sentence and for the first time the girl realized it.

Klaus pinned the whelps hands to the floor—literally of course—and he whined in response. It was satisfying of course but it would _never_ be enough. Not even the bloody death of every person involved could sufficiently soothe this wound. But it was a start.

Kneeling down besides the dying girl he might have loved—might still love, just not enough, never enough to forgive his brother's fate—he settled down to watch. Observe her last moments, refusing to turn his head away, refusing to reach out to her. Refusing to do anything but watch as the life slowly bled from her eyes.

 _It might not be a bloodbath_ yet, he acknowledged when he finally rose again, turning his back on yet another corpse, another face of the past he wouldn't care to remember a few days from now. Turning towards the only other living occupant of the house laying helplessly on the ground, his face a lovely mask of horror and disbelief.

 _But it was a start_.

 **End of Part II**

* * *

In case you didn't get that part: Rider simply raised a second barrier on the entrance of the house [I'm assuming it's a fairly simple spell considering Bonnie used it quite a lot, even when she was far less powerful. Examples: the tomb in the first season, locking Elena in her home and tricking Katherine during the ball in the second one]. Tyler and Caroline knew that Bonnie had locked Klaus into the living room but as they didn't know he had another witch coming over in such a short amount of time they assumed she had put too much power or something in the spell. So when they crossed the second barrier the only protection from Klaus fell away and they didn't even know it.

Any suggestions for Rebekah's revenge on Stefan? And whom do you think Elijah would be most cross with from the Gang? BTW what do you think of Rider?

Love Schlange

* _Geht es Krista gut?_ means _Is Krista alright?_ in German. Let's assume Rider didn't expect Klaus to call her and instead worried about her sister.


End file.
